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JEWELRY DESIGN & MFG. LTD.

Applegate Square • 29847 Northwestern Hwy.
Southfield, Michigan 48034 • (313) 356-7007

2 PAIR
OF

EYEGLASSES
$6n00 complete

Artwork by Ed Freska. Copyright c 1989, Ed Freska. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

EVERYDAY

Frames and Single
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Britain Becomes 'Back Channel'
To PLO For Bush Administration

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PREMISES

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Fidelity Bank Building
24901 Northwestern Hwy.
Southfield
357-1056

34

FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1990

HELEN DAVIS

Foreign Correspondent

T

he announcement
from Washington last
week that the United
States had decided to sus-
pend its 18-month-old offi-
cial dialogue with the PLO
was greeted with undisguis-
ed delight by the new Israeli
government.
Had not Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir lectured
Washington about the
duplicitous nature of the
PLO? Had not Defense Min-
ister Moshe Arens warned
that even while Yassir
Arafat was renouncing ter-
rorism he was continuing to
preside over an organization
that was rooted in murder
and mayhem?
"We hope it will now be
easier for us to reach an
understanding and a com-
mon stand with the United
States regarding the con-
tinuation of the peace pro-
cess," declared Shamir when
he heard the news. Arens
echoed the response, hailing
the decision as "a contribu-
tion toward furthering
peace."
The bout of self-

congratulations in
Jerusalem, however, may be
premature. The harsh real-
ity is that Washington was
not persuaded by Israel's en-
treaties. Its decision to sus-
pend the dialogue with the
PLO —like its decision to es-
tablish official contacts in
the first place — was guided
by its own internal logic;
governed by its own reading
of the political map.
With or without a dia-
logue, the Bush administra-
tion remains convinced that
the PLO, overtly or covertly,
is an essential ingredient in
any meaningful Middle East
peace process, whether
Israel likes it or not. That
much has been stated by
Secretary of State James
Baker and that will continue
to inform United States
policy.
In fact, one effect of the
decision has been to place
the ball firmly back in
Shamir's court, challenging
him to show what he can do
now that Yassir Arafat and
the PLO have been removed,
albeit temporarily, from the
picture. Given the shape of
his new government, that
will be a tall order indeed.

The real question left beg-
ging by the Bush ad-
ministration's decision to
scuttle its budding relation-
ship with the PLO, which
was said to have been made
more in sorrow than in
anger, is just how complete
the disengagement will be.
One clue was provided by
U.S. Ambassador to Tunis
Robert Pelletreu, who was
specifically charged with
maintaining contact with
the PLO. According to
sources in London, Pelletreu
gave the PLO advance notice
of the suspension of the dia-
logue, and his message, say
the sources, was to "play it
cool."
Within days, a more com-
plete answer had emerged in
London. The United States,
it was revealed, had asked
Britain to act as a "back
channel" with the PLO
while its own official dia-
logue was frozen.
This revelation held an
ominous portent for Israel,
raising yet another question:
Was the Bush administra-
tion dropping the ball only to
allow others to pick it up and
run with it; others who
might be less susceptible to a

